Thank you for the summary. I understand how creators are incentivized by YouTube to produce longer content, but it is a bit ridiculous that this 30 minute video could have been 6 tweets.
I don't watch TC because the padding doesn't come across as entertaining to me; it feels like a lot more beating around the bush. There's a _lot_ of repetition.
In the video, he researches relevant laws in the EU and US, and explains the details and implications of those laws. He compares to previous solutions from another manufacturer, GM, and also personally verifies that his car's automatic cruise control mode does properly use brake lights, and also shows how that is following the letter of the law.
There is no cruft in the video, just a lot of densely packed content. Yes you can summarize the video in a few sentences, but you miss out on a lot of the details.
This isn't even the worst example, because the additional content is at least part of the entertainment (even if not the most efficient).
Padding is par for the course among Youtubers. If you play a lot of video games, you'll notice this, because gaming news and tutorials are often done on Youtube.
There are a couple of different thresholds for algorithmic promotion and monetization - I believe 10 minutes is the biggest one - so a lot of videos are padded with filler content just to make the threshold.
You'll also see it on videos for "how to pronounce ______", because they can't monetize below a certain threshold, so they'll pad it with useless filler in order to make the video over 30s long.
Content follows the money. Even if it’s anemic like YT, it’s still a lot more than zero.